Jeremiah 22

1Thus says Yahweh: Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word:

2and say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David—you, your servants, and your people who enter through these gates.’

3Thus says Yahweh: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the robbed person from the hand of the oppressor. Do not oppress the resident foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow, and do not do violence, and do not shed innocent blood in this place.

4For if you truly do this thing, then kings sitting on David’s throne will enter through the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses—he, his servants, and his people.

5But if you do not listen to these words, I swear by myself, declares Yahweh, that this house will become a ruin.

6For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, the summit of Lebanon; surely I will make you a wilderness, cities not inhabited.

7And I will set apart destroyers against you, each with his weapons; they will cut down the choicest of your cedars and cast them into the fire.

8And many nations will pass by this city, and each man will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has Yahweh done thus to this great city?’

9And they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.’

10Do not weep for the dead, and do not mourn for him. Weep bitterly for the one going away, for he will never return or see the land of his birth.

11For thus says Yahweh concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: He shall never return there again.

12For in the place where they have exiled him, there he will die, and he will never see this land again.

13Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness, and his upper rooms without justice, who makes his neighbor work for nothing and does not give him his wages.

14who says, ‘I will build myself a spacious house with roomy upper chambers,’ and cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it red.

15Do you reign because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.

16He defended the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not that what it means to know me? declares Yahweh.

17But your eyes and your heart are set on nothing except your dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood, and on practicing oppression and extortion.

18Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will not lament for him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” or “Alas, sister!” They will not lament for him, saying, “Alas, lord!” or “Alas, his majesty!”

19He will be buried with the burial of a donkey—dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

20Go up to Lebanon and cry out; raise your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are shattered.

21I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, for you have not listened to my voice.

22All your shepherds the wind will shepherd, and your lovers will go into captivity; then you will surely be ashamed and humiliated because of all your evil.

23You who dwell in Lebanon, who nest in the cedars, how you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman giving birth.

24As I live, declares Yahweh, even if Coniah son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, even from there I would tear you off.

25And I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those before whom you are afraid, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

26And I will hurl you and your mother who gave birth to you into another land, where you were not born, and there you will die.

27But to the land to which they lift up their soul to return, there they will not return.

28Is this man Coniah a despised, broken vessel, or a vessel in which there is no delight? Why have he and his offspring been hurled out and cast into a land that they did not know?

29Land, land, land, hear the word of Yahweh.

30Thus says Yahweh: Write this man down as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for none of his offspring will prosper to sit on the throne of David and rule again in Judah.